[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] First,
Barcelona. Now, Real Madrid. For the second day in a row, a Spanish
giant fell at home. This time, AC Milan put aside its troubled start to
the 2009-10 season and beat Real Madrid, 3-2, at the Bernabeu Stadium.
Manchester United has found a new rising star in Ecuadoran Antonio Valencia, while Bayern
Munich's problems continued with an ugly performance in France. Here
are things we learned on Wednesday ...

Real Madrid has its work cut out
if it wants to win a 10th European Cup.

AC Milan exposed Real Madrid's defensive frailties, shocking the
Merengues with a 3-2 victory at the Bernabeu Stadium on Wednesday
night. Real is going to score a ton of goals, but it will also struggle
shut down high-powered attacks, like it has in its two losses -- to
Sevilla in La Liga and now Milan.

Andrea Pirlo scored on a
curling 30-yard shot, fooling Iker
Casillas to the near post, in the 62nd minute, and young
Brazilian Pato Alexandre
beat Casillas twice. "Until they tied it 1-1, we played a good
game, we were in control," Real coach Manuel
Pellegrini said. "We then
got disorganized, and
Milan took advantage to win the game." The new Galacticos' problems are
reminiscent of those of the original Galacticos.

Manchester United improved to 3-0-0 with a 1-0 win at CSKA
Moscow in its return to Luzhniki
Stadium, where it won the 2008 Champions League. United was without Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs, but it was in command on
the artificial surface.The hero was Antonio
Valencia, a summer acquisition from Wigan. The Ecuadoran scored
the winning goal minutes after he hit the woodwork.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson
is thrilled with his new winger. "Valencia has been a plus point for
the last few weeks. He is emerging very well, settling into the club
and his confidence is getting stronger. He has tremendous assets for a
wide player, but the assets he didn't show at Wigan were his goals,
where he would maybe get three or four a season. This was his challenge
when he signed for us. Two in two games will help him."

Louis van Gaal may not last longer
at Bayern Munich than Juergen Klinsmann did last season.

Dutch coach Louis van Gaal was
considered the anti-Klinsmann, the opposite of Juergen Klinsmann, and expected to
bring some order to a Bayern team that struggled last season. But as it
showed in its 2-1 loss to Bordeaux on Wednesday, Bayern's problems
continue. Bordeaux would have won by a bigger margin but it missed two
penalties.

"The defeat has really angered me," said van Gaal. "After the early
goal, we made too many poor passes. We were better in the second half
with 10 men than we were in the first half with 11." Problem was,
Bayern finished the game with nine players. Daniel Van Buyten joined Thomas Muller in the showers late in
the game. Bayern is third in Group A behind Bordeaux and Juventus and
is sixth in the Bundesliga.